It was the public showdown where big netball mum energy faced a glacial force. A scrappy, profane gaggle of local government staff met the methodical legal eagles scrubbing away at the dishes after a picnic. The Pink Ladies who tried to take over Parramatta versus the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
What has unfurled over six weeks at the ICAC is more than a tale of friendship and forged signatures and 40th birthday celebrations in matching pink shirts. The allegations raised at the commission – that three women known as the Pink Ladies of Parramatta plotted, in effect, to take over the council’s staff by stacking it with their friends and cronies, with the chief executive placing herself above elected officials by withholding information and spying on one of them – go to the very heart of trust and transparency in local government.
They delve into the murky world that exists in the highest echelons of the lowest level of government, where council bosses traded staff and information, and jostled for power.
Some of the themes have been universal. When does a colleague become a work friend, and when does a work friend become a close personal friend?
Some have been specific. At what point does giving a mate some feedback on a CV morph into slipping them the questions in advance, and improperly filling in a disclosure form become subversion of the recruitment process to corruptly benefit associates?
